ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, November 20, 1996 TAG: 9611200029
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-6 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: Marketplace
SOURCE: SANDRA BROWN KELLY
Photographs can make great gifts.
Through the years, I have copied snapshots to make gift photo albums for my ex-husband, my children and my sister.
But that's mundane stuff compared to what you can now create with a photograph.
One of my fantasies is to spend a night at a Kinko's making things from the pictures I took on a trip to Alaska.
But despite all this enthusiasm, I've never sent a photo Christmas card because I never could meet the deadline to get them done. Well, heck, now anybody can do it. The quickie labs can turn out the photos for cards in minutes and at surprising costs.
Wendy Thomas, who runs the photo lab at the Wal-Mart Supercenter opposite Valley View Mall, sells 10 4-by-6-inch prints with cards to insert them in for $4.86. For a bit fancier card, your photograph or negative will be processed within two weeks at a Wal-Mart lab in Maryland.
Thomas said she will accept orders until Dec. 6 or 7 for items that have to be sent out for processing.
Her department can put pictures on a porcelain ornament or baby shoe, a mousepad, a T-shirt, a coffee mug and a baseball cap.
"A lot of pictures of dogs and grandchildren go on baseball caps," she said.
Pictures of children have been the favorites for mousepads.
Prices range from $8.96 to $12.96.
Technology allows so many things to be done with photographs that even the people who have to help produce the gifts get enthusiastic about their capabilities.
This year, for the first time, Photo USA can add your photograph to coffee mugs and steins that can be put in the microwave or dishwasher like any cup, said Tom Tanner, the company's owner.
The process used to add the photographic image to the mug is more a computer process than photography, Tanner said. The photograph is scanned into the computer and reproduced on a special paper that is molded into the mug with heat and pressure.
Some of his staff have made mugs using their business cards as the artwork and used them to promote the company's services.
But Grandma at Dollywood will work just as well as decoration for the mug or stein.
Photo USA has an array of offerings similar to Wal-Mart, but Tanner is high on the idea of restoring old photographs. His labs also colorize old photos.
Prices at this spot go up to about $19 and are comparable to ones at Kinko's at Towers Shopping Center.
Photo USA and Kinko's don't set deadlines on Christmas orders, but, when it gets down to the wire, getting a finished product on time can be touchy.
Kinko's can do the same items as the other places, plus bookmarks, puzzles and life-sized cutouts on stands. Calendars are a specialty for the copy shop, said John Walton, manager of the color department at the Towers store.
It's actually hard to get away from the idea of photography this holiday. When I signed on to America Online Monday night, the opening advertisement was for the QV-10 Digital Camera from Casio. This $500 camera lets a person take a picture and upload it directly to a computer.
P.S. If you do have access to a computer, search on Christmas gifts. You'll get 31,618 results that include card suggestions for Christmas, Hanukkah and Kwanzaa celebrations.
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